- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Let me see if I can address as many of these as I can...
"Why did the Covenant release the Flood...twice?"
Good point. But think of it this way: The way they were released in the first game is nothing like the second game. In the first, they are completely contained inside small rooms in a facility. In the second, they already broke out of those and are only contained by the containment shield. The Arbiter needs to lower the containment shield to get the Sacred Icon. Why would the Covenant do this again?
- The Great Journey!!! Religious insanity is good enough.
- "The largest Covenant fleet I've ever seen. The largest anyone has ever seen." (Cortana) that fleet is sitting right outside of Halo; if anything bad happens, they can simply deal with it with brute force. Very slim chance anything catostrophic will happen by simply lowering the shield.
Why does it turn catostrophic? 1: Civil War in the Covenant; their firepower and attention is dedicated on each other, not the Flood outbreak. 2: Flood get In Amber Clad to jump to High Charity. Bad things happen.
No plot hole, just indirect reasoning.
"Why does Gravemind need In Amber Clad if he can teleport anything to anywhere on High Charity?"
Good question. Referring to Halo 1 at the end of Two Betrayals "however, each jump requires a rather consequential expendeture of energy." Why would you spend soooo much energy (transporting a human-size figure, much less a behemoth giant like the Gravemind), when you can simply use a warp jump on a ship that is easily within your grasp. No plot hole, just indirect reasoning.
"Why doesn't Gravemind teleport his Flood outside the shield??"
Surely the shield scrambles all teleportation. The Forerunners weren't stupid; far from it. The shield is probably more than a simple physical obstruction. Plus, *refers back to last question* it takes a lot of energy to do that, energy that might have been used on the shield. Also, the Flood are busy trying to defend the Sacred Icon and rid themselves of the Sentinels. In addition, since it takes a lot of energy, there wouldn't be many Flood outside the shield. Perhaps they were killed or you simply never saw them (you only were on a fraction of the ring). There are a few reasons why he didn't (or did): pick whichever one you want.
"It was Ackerson!!!"
This makes the most sense; the Flood were already release, simply contained inside of a shield. Human Flood and many Human supplies were inside the shield, which is curious. Plus, the Flood were using vehicles; even if you are super-smart, it takes some time to learn how to use something without instructions or anything. However, I do not believe in Halo 3 it will blame it on Ackerson; when did you see Ackerson referred to, referenced, or even noted in the Halo games? True, it might state them in the books, but saying "hey, you know those things that happened in the past. Yeah, that was this guy you never heard of but has been mastermining everything." in a video game seems farfetched.